A scary accident has a happy ending

May 26, 2006|AL LESAR

ST. JOSEPH -- Tears aren't supposed to come as easily as they do these days. Tami Goslee's training as a nurse is supposed to render her calm and professional in a traumatic situation. But her emotions as a mom superseded her medical demeanor. "Sitting in the front seat of the ambulance, watching Jordan have a seizure, I knew something was seriously wrong," Tami said, her eyes welling and her voice trembling. "That's when I really worried." Two weeks later, Tami and Mike Goslee finally find it easy to smile and laugh when they look over at their daughter, Jordan, who will graduate soon from St. Joseph (Mich.) High School. A lean 5-foot-9 blonde, Jordan's bright smile and sparkling eyes show her as the picture of health. It's hard to imagine that on May 9 she was taped to a stretcher and loaded into an air ambulance headed to Kalamazoo after being hit solidly in the head with a line drive during a softball game. Jordan was a very good right-handed pitcher for the Bears' softball team -- good enough that, along with her 3.9 GPA, she earned an opportunity to play next year at Rose Hulman Institute of Technology, an NCAA Division III school in Terre Haute, Ind. On May 9, St. Joe was playing Niles, which featured first baseman Stephanee Schrader -- another senior with a 3.9 GPA, who will play at Grand Valley State next year. Stephanee and Jordan became good friends while playing two summers together with the Great Lakes Lightning travel softball team. The hit It was the first inning of the second game of a doubleheader. Jordan was pitching against Stephanee. Stephanee, a power hitter, crushed a line drive. Jordan's head got between the ball and its trip to center field. "It was the hardest hit I'd had all year," Stephanee said. "I have friends who were playing on the baseball field (at St. Joe, nearby). They said they heard one loud crack, everyone cheered, then another loud crack, and it was silent." "Jordan's been hit before and she always gets up," Tami said. "When she didn't get up, I knew something was wrong." "I don't remember a thing, which is probably good," Jordan said. One parent was taping the game, but no one has had the courage to rewind the tape and watch it. By all accounts, it was horrifying. Stephanee said Jordan normally throws her curve balls. When Jordan throws a curve, she falls a bit to her left side. That would explain why the right side of Jordan's head was exposed to the hit. According to doctors who examined Jordan, the point of impact was 2 centimeters above the top of the right ear and 10 centimeters forward. The worst injuries were a skull fracture and fractured jaw. Neither required surgery. "I felt like I was completely floating," Jordan said of the impact. "Every part of my body was tingly. It stopped when I hit the ground." "As soon as I realized I hit Jordan, I just stopped on my way to first. I couldn't move," Stephanee said. "My dad saw how I reacted and ran out of the stands and held me. I needed that. I just wanted to be with Jordan." "I remember Stephanee crying and saying, 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry,'" Jordan said. "I told her, 'It's not your fault.'" Tami and other nurses at the game were cool in the crisis. Along with school sports medicine personnel, they stabilized the situation until the ambulance arrived. While on the way to Lakeland Hospital in St. Joe, Tami saw her daughter go through a seizure for several minutes, which prompted the air transfer to Bronson Hospital in Kalamazoo. "Jordan was kind of disappointed she slept through the helicopter ride," Tami can say now with a teasing tone. A couple tense days followed until Jordan showed signs of coming around. The masks "Mike and I were sitting with her when she woke up," Tami said, recalling May 11. "She was disappointed she missed her chemistry test and wanted to know what happened to her softball jersey. We told her they had to cut it off. She said, 'What am I going to wear Thursday?' "We had to tell her she isn't going to be playing for a while, which was hard on her, but it was nice to see that she was herself again." "The worst thing for me was thinking I'd never play again," Jordan said. "But now I know I can. I'm not sure what it's going to be like going to pitch again (in college), but I'll get over it." She'll never again step onto the field without a protective mask, though. The trauma of the situation wasn't totally on Jordan. Friends and coaches from all over the area have talked to Stephanee, too. "I've heard from so many people not to let this change the way I play," said Stephanee, who is an aggressive part of the Niles team. "It really freaked me out. I'm glad it rained (postponing games), so I had time to get over it." Stephanee didn't return to the field alone. She, too, took a mask with her. Pitchers, third basemen and first basemen at Niles are now required by coach Jim Arnold to wear protective masks. Other high school teams, along with youth league programs, are making masks mandatory, at least for their pitchers. "I truly believe Jordan and Stephanee were chosen for this because they're strong girls who could handle this," Tami said. "If going through this means that safety becomes more of an important issue in softball, then that's their contribution. It doesn't matter what it looks like on the field when it comes to saving a life." Both girls look just fine today.